So it turns out that the 2012 Padres hit three digits long before their 100th loss.

Andrew Cashner came out of the bullpen Sunday afternoon to make baseballs blurry. According to the radar readings of

MLB.com, Cashner threw 14 pitches that registered at least 100 miles per hour — 10 of them in succession — and that’s a feat no other Padres’ pitcher has approached in the first 43 years of the franchise.

This was worth noting, worth watching, worth water cooler conversation and probably worth promoting as a plausible reason to visit Petco Park this summer.

If you can’t pretend to be chasing a championship — if your owner has put up a “For Sale” sign while operating on a shoestring barely long enough to be laced — you might as well attack public apathy with a carnival act. In the absence of a big-league lineup, a dazzling defense, a stingy starting rotation or the reliable comic relief of a mime dressed as poultry, the Padres present Andrew Cashner — the fastest gun they’ve ever owned.

Aim, presumably, comes later.

Cashner’s two-out, eighth-inning, bases-loaded walk to Giancarlo Stanton lifted the Miami Marlins to a 6-3 win Sunday and three-game sweep of the undermanned Home Team. The good news from the Padres’ perspective is that this season already seems so futile that Cashner’s velocity brings the ballclub some buzz.

Clubhouse consensus said Cashner was probably the first Padres’ pitcher to reach 100 miles per hour in a game, and certainly the club’s pioneer at the 102-mph plateau. Pitching coach Darren Balsley said the only other Padres pitcher he could recall reaching 100 mph was Rusty Tucker, who did it for Double-A Mobile in 2003.

Here in baseball’s island of misfit toys, Andrew Cashner might qualify as a decent drawing card if only short relief specialists made scheduled appearances.

“It’s human nature,” Padres’ pitcher Joe Wieland said. “When you see something like that, you kind of are drawn to it, just like a guy who can hit a ball 450 feet in batting practice. Guys want to watch that. (Cashner’s) that pitcher. When you can throw 100 miles per hour, you’re definitely going to light up some eyes.”

With three starting pitchers, bullpen closer Huston Street and locally grown slugger Carlos Quentin on the disabled list, the Padres look like a club better suited for the Pacific Coast League. Sunday’s loss was their 20th in 29 games, a performance that projects as a 50-112 season.

Though it’s hard to believe the Padres can be that bad for that long, it’s also tough to imagine that they can soon be markedly better.

“Sometimes you have to go through rough times to get to where you want to go,” manager Bud Black said before Sunday’s game. “It’s not always smooth sailing.”

Smooth sailing? The Padres might as well be running the rapids on a refrigerator.

First baseman Yonder Alonso, the most immediate help obtained in the deal that sent Mat Latos to Cincinnati, has outlasted even Albert Pujols in pursuit of his first home run. (Latos struck out 11 Pirates in six innings on Sunday.)